


Sleepy ficlets

by barbarosabee



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, Gen, M/M, sleepy cowboy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-22 18:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21306857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barbarosabee/pseuds/barbarosabee
Summary: Arthur has a bad habit of falling asleep in random places.Charles is always able to find him, though.
Relationships: Arthur Morgan/Charles Smith
Comments: 19
Kudos: 97





	1. The Bridge

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by an ask: "Arthur has a habit of falling asleep in random places in the wilderness and always being on edge, so when he falls asleep against a bridge or tree or something Charles finds him and goes to wake him, just kinda pokes him like "Arthur wake up" and Arthur pulls out a gun and shoves it in his face before he realized it was Charles so when he saw it was Charles, Arthur felt terrible for scaring him."

Charles is not an easy man to scare, but damn if he isn’t scared of a revolver six inches from his face.

“Arthur, it’s just Charles.”

Takes Arthur a few more seconds before lowering the gun with a string of curses and apologies.

Charles just flops down next to him and asks if there’s anything Arthur wants to talk about. Arthur sighs, hangs his head with a soft “yeah,” and starts telling Charles about the shit he’s been dealing with the last few days. Stage robbery gone bad, not _too_ bad but not great and there weren’t even a good haul, a homestead he’d thought abandoned but that was actually booby-trapped to the rafters.

“Shot a horse by accident,” and that’s what _really_ upset him, what lead him to just riding around aimlessly until he got too tired to continue and decided to take a nap in the dirt against a tree “cuz it’s not like I deserve anything better, not after what I done.”

Charles listens quietly. Arthur doesn’t notice when Charles takes one of his hands between his own and massages the tension out of it.

“It was an accident, Arthur.”

Arthur sighs, harsh, looks down at his hand held between Charles’. Can’t bring himself to meet Charles’ eyes.

“I ain’t—”

Charles releases his hand, turns Arthur’s face towards him with fingers sinking into the overgrowth of beard. “Don’t say you’re a bad man.”

“But I—”

Charles just shuts him up with a kiss. “How many times do I have to tell you otherwise?” Charles asks when they part, eyes locked to Arthur’s.

Arthur sighs, softer this time, and lets Charles pull him down to until Arthur’s in his lap. Charles runs his hands through Arthur’s hair, detangling it as he goes, braiding up the longest bits even though he has nothing to keep the braids in place. Arthur relaxes into the motion and Charles can feel him start to fall asleep.

“I’ll keep watch.”

And that’s all Arthur needs, and he’s back asleep again, this time not on edge and listening for his sins to catch up to him.


	2. The Lake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woops turned into a part 2. mayhap it shall become an ongoing series...so I'll leave it as incomplete for now just in case

It’s not the first time Charles has found Arthur passed out against a tree. There’s a 50/50 chance Arthur will be sleeping when Charles eventually catches up to him. After having a gun in his face the last time, though, Charles is more cautious on his approach.

He spotted Calliope first, unsaddled and sniffing around the bullrush. Arthur wouldn’t be far from the little camp with its smoldering fire, not with his saddle and satchel and guns all piled right there next to the beat up canvas bedroll. Calliope nosed at Charles’ pockets as he stood. and he scratched between her ears as he scanned the area for Arthur.

The stag caught his eye first. A big one, old, neck scarred black. The velvet hung off the ten-point antlers in wide bloody clumps. The midday sun caught the shine of fresh blood along his hooves. Charles worried for a second that it was Arthur’s, knowing that man’s luck—but when he followed the buck’s line of sight, there was Arthur, leaned back against a tree, chin to his chest, hat by his hand. Charles could see the deep even rise and fall of his sleeping breath.

Charles slowly crouched for Arthur’s things, dug around until he found the boxy camera. He knew how to use it; also knew he didn’t quite have the same eye for photography that Arthur did. But this was too rare a sight to pass up.

Charles watched the buck step forward and sniff the air in front of Arthur. _Click_. His ears twitched towards Charles, but he didn’t startle, just took another step forward. _Click_. The stag’s head was no more than six inches from Arthur’s face, the antlers wide enough to frame it. _Click_. The bloody velvet created a curtain that obscured Arthur, but Charles still saw the stag’s breath ruffle Arthur’s hair. _Click_.

One of the horses bumped into Charles from behind and he stumbled. Foot caught in the loop of Arthur’s satchel and sent it skidding along the gravelly lake shore. The stag’s head jerked towards him, nostrils flared, and it darted off as Charles righted himself. Arthur snorted awake under the tree, looked around tense and confused but relaxed, maybe even smiled a bit when he saw Charles untangling himself. Calliope pointedly turned the other way but Arthur could tell she must’ve pushed him.

Arthur hauled himself to his feet, tossed his hat back on his head.

“What’re you doing with my camera?” Arthur asked as he took Charles’ foot in both hands, held it up to unwind the strap from the ankle. Charles put his hands on Arthur’s shoulders under the pretense of needing to steady himself even though they both knew Charles’ balance was the better of the two.

“Nice to see you too,” Charles said with a smirk as he handed the camera over after Arthur stood. Calliope immediately trotted over and forced her head under Arthur’s arms until he scratched behind her ears.

Arthur tucked the camera back into the satchel and went to get the fire going again. “I gonna find anything embarrassing on here when I get it developed?”

Charles stood opposite him, held his hands over the fire to warm them. “No. A buck came up to you while you were sleeping.”

“Hmm. Don’t remember falling asleep. Meant to catch some fish.”

“Well, as it happens… .” Charles removed the carefully wrapped bass he’d caught that morning. “Was about to give these to Pearson when Dutch asked me to come find you.”

Arthur took the already gutted fish with a noncommittal grunt. Charles handed him a few sticks before Arthur could ask, and they sat in an easy silence broken only by fat sizzling on the fire. Arthur pulled his knees up to rest his elbows on, and Charles watched his head droop more and more from the corner of his eye. Sat close enough Charles felt heat from Arthur more than the fire.

Charles removed the cooked fish from the fire, nudged Arthur’s foot. Arthur thanked him but didn’t eat right away.

“What’ve you been up to, the last few days?” Charles asked.

Arthur shrugged, sighed, laid his fish over a rock to keep it off the ground. Took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair. Knots tangled around his fingers and Charles was pretty sure he saw dried blood flake away. 

Before Charles could stop himself, he found his hands brushing through Arthur’s hair. Definitely needed a wash and would benefit from a proper comb but Charles was determined to do what he could to at least ease _some_ of Arthur’s discomfort.

Arthur sighed at the touch, content this time, and allowed Charles to maneuver him until he was leaned back against Charles, Charles’ legs framing his own and keeping him in place. Arthur’s head lolled against Charles’ shoulder and Charles moved on to massage his neck instead. By the time he got to Arthur’s shoulders Arthur was asleep again.

Charles watched the sunset spill pink over the lake as Arthur snored softly against his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> based on this ask: "Arthur had a pretty rough day one day and decided to make camp by a lake not too far from camp (but not too close) Charles is out and sees Arthur's camp, he ends up stopping by. As overworked as Arthur is, he found him sitting up against a tree, falling asleep with a buck wandering only feet away from him. Charles took a picture, and when it left Charles went up to Arthur and threw a blanket on him and hung out at his camp until he woke up a few hours later, he even made some fish for artie"
> 
> come find me on tumblr @barbarosabeee and send me more asks if you want :>

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on tumblr @barbarosabeee
> 
> Sorry I haven't updated any of the other stories in forever but HEY I wrote a new thing! And I haven't written anything in months so this is progress. Things IRL are starting to not be so shitty so HOPEFULLY I will actually manage to finish the other fics.


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